When a motor vehicle is involved in an accident there is a risk that the driver and passengers within the vehicle will be injured It has been proposed to provide vehicles with safety devices to reduce the risk of such injury.
Certain safety devices are intended to provide protection in the case of a side impact. U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,322 discloses such a device. An inflatable tube is initially stored in a recess in the door frame above the door of the vehicle, and the ends of the tube are pivotally anchored to fixed points on the door frame. A sensor is provided to sense when an accident occurs, and to initiate inflation of the tube. As the tube inflates its length decreases, and it then extends linearly between the two fixed points on the door frame. The inflated tube provides some protection for the head of a person sitting in the vehicle. However, the tube is inflated to a substantial pressure, and thus the head of a person in the vehicle may tend to bounce off the tube. The tube may not cover the whole of the area of the window, and may not even cover the whole of the upper part of the window. There is thus a risk that the head of the person in the vehicle may move past the tube and pass through the window opening. If a car is rolling over this is very undesirable.